Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Homeland and Civil Security
A Research-Based Introduction
Edited By Alexander Siedschlag
13 The Scientific Status of New Security Studies: A Critical Search for Epistemic Identity of Homeland and Civil Security Research
Extract
13
The Scientific Status of New Security Studies: A Critical Search for Epistemic Identity of Homeland and Civil Security Research
RACHEL SUISSA
Introduction
This chapter puts the contributions to this volume into perspective, focusing on the status of homeland and civil security as a field of research. It argues that the epistemic identity of this field can be provided by the over-arching academic discipline of new security studies. The conceptual radical shifts from security as defense and war studies, military, grand strategy, and geopolitics to comprehensive new security studies,1 including homeland and civil security, require an epistemological inquiry (i.e., a study of the nature and grounds of the knowledge in the field) to help evaluate their scientific status. An evaluation of the scientific status of a research program and its theoretical core assumptions should be differentiated from the epistemology of the evolution of the discipline to which the research program relates. New security studies and their novelty are defined by the following four pillars,2 each of which have been addressed by chapters in this book:
Thus, new security studies are being discussed mainly through their ontological entities, with valuable contributions to the state of the art, though sometimes at the risk of confusing security ontology (what the nature of security is) with questions of its epistemology (how we can gain knowledge about security).
Any inquiry into the scientific status of new security studies as...
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